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Tag Archives: David Brookings and the Average Lookings

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2019

15 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

≈ 3 Comments

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*repeat repeat, Berwanger, Bombadil, Dan Israel, David Brookings and the Average Lookings, Johnny Stanec, kiwi jr, Lolas, Martha, Matthew Milia, Mondello, Nick Eng, Pernice Brothers, Richard Turgeon, Scandinavia, Sofa City Sweetheart, Telekinesis, The Boys with Perpetual Nervousness, The Brothers Steve, The Cactus Blossoms, The Golden Seals, The John Sally Ride, The Maureens, The Vapour Trails, Trip Wire

Screen Shot 2020-01-13 at 11.39.35 AMPoor Myrtle. She’s only got Muzak® to keep her company through the long shift at work. If only she had access to this great new list of must-have LPs from 2019, helpfully assembled by Poprock Record, she might actually close that Henderson account and get off early. The lesson? You can take an oldies fixation too far. You don’t have to live in the past to love that retro sound. This year’s best-of round up of LPs from 2019 is definitive proof that everything old can be new again!

Just a word of caution – there’s no science to the list and rankings below. Here are just 25 albums and 10 EPs that caught my ear this past year and kept me coming back for more. There was something about each, their combination of elements (songwriting, instrumentation, performance), that I thought really worked as a coherent whole. And that’s saying something in our world of social media distractions and a renewed music biz focus primarily on singles.

So let’s begin with Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2019:

  1. Bombadil Beautiful Country
  2. Matthew Milia Alone at St. Hugo
  3. The Brothers Steve #1
  4. The Maureens Something in the Air
  5. Richard Turgeon Go Deep
  6. The Golden Seals Something Isn’t Happening
  7. Pernice Brothers Spread the Feeling
  8. *repeat repeat Glazed
  9. Martha Love Keeps Kicking
  10. Scandinavia Premium Economy
  11. The Vapour Trails See You in the Next World
  12. The Cactus Blossoms Easy Way
  13. Johnny Stanec Things Were Better, When
  14. The John Sally Ride Nothing Doing
  15. The Boys With Perpetual Nervousness Dead Calm
  16. Telekinesis Effluxion
  17. David Brookings and the Average Lookings Scorpio Monologue
  18. Mondello Hello, All You Happy People
  19. Nick Eng Long Shot
  20. Sofa City Sweetheart Super (b) Exitos
  21. Dan Israel Social Media Anxiety Disorder
  22. Berwanger Watching a Garden Die
  23. Lolas Bulletproof
  24. kiwi jr Football Money
  25. Trip Wire Once and Always

Screen Shot 2020-01-15 at 2.26.05 PMI really like the variety covered in this list. There’s everything from jangle (4, 11, 15, 25) and country (12) and Dylanesque stylings (21), to keyboard contemporary (8) and acerbic social commentary (10, 23) and straight-up Beatlesque poprock (17, 19). And there’s a lot of sweetness, like Mondello’s impressive 20 year labour of love (18). My number one album, Bombadil’s Beautiful Country, embodies this commitment to diversity. It’s got an overall indie-folk vibe but the songwriting and playing are so sophisticated that somehow the label fails to capture all of what’s going on. Believe me, it’s a 37 minute journey through a myriad of lyrical and musical delights. Close behind at #2 Matthew Milia’s Alone at St. Hugo represents an amazing synthesis of melodic rock influences, from the Beatles (obviously) to the more mellow Fountains of Wayne moments. It’s an tone setter – put it on and drift away! At #3 was #1. Confused? #1 was the name of the debut album from the power pop veterans behind The Brothers Steve and it did not disappoint. The record is like a veritable hit machine. I can only imagine that this was what it was like to get your hands on a new Beatles record in the 1960s: immediately engaging, inventive yet relatable, and with nary a bum track. And I could go on about every entry on this list … but instead just click on the links to go my original posts about the bands and you can judge them for yourself.

Next up, Poprock Record’s 10 must-have EPs from 2019:

  1. David Molter Foolish Heart
  2. Omicrom J Trauma You Should Have Thought About That
  3. David Woodard Everything in Between
  4. Brett Perfect Patterns
  5. Project: Ghost Outfit Project: Ghost Outfit
  6. Super 8 Head Sounds
  7. scienceisfiction Don’t Everyone Thank Me at Once
  8. Ducks Unlimited Get Bleak
  9. Jean Caffeine Love. What is It?
  10. Lost Ships All of the Pieces

The revival of the EP is very much in the spirit of the times as performers try to woo listeners to fork over for music in an era of YouTube shuffles and streaming. Personally, I’m usually left feeling that most are just bloated maxi-singles or Readers Digest condensed albums. But these ten show just how punchy an EP can be! Content-wise, I’ll just say this about my number 1 choice: wow. Dave Molter got his musical start in the 1960s (as evident on the record!) but waited until his 70s to put out Foolish Heart. What you get are five gems polished to poprock perfection: hooks, harmonies, the whole deal.

One last thing: a special mention for Aaron Lee Tasjan’s Karma for Cheap: Reincarnated. The original record was my number 1 album for 2018 and this reinvention beautifully reimagines all those great tunes in often stark and stripped down ways. If you liked the original, you’re gonna love the remake.

Breaking news: No Win, Supercrush, and David Brookings and the Average Lookings

11 Saturday May 2019

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Breaking News

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

David Brookings and the Average Lookings, Downy, I Don't Want to be Sad Anymore, Never Let You Drift Away, No Win, Scorpio Monologue, Shelly Duvall, Supercrush

Screen Shot 2019-05-11 at 11.15.31 PMIt is too early to start working up a best albums list for 2019? Because the crew on this edition of the breaking news team are going for broke on the ‘all killer, no filler’ kind of long players. These are album downloads – no point wasting your time buying them song by song.

Screen Shot 2019-05-11 at 11.18.17 PMI was minding my own business on iTunes searching out movie star names as song titles when I ran across No Win’s “Shelly Duvall.” And that led me to their new album, Downy, 36 minutes of muscular poprock with a decidedly Weezer vibe. I thought I’d stumbled across a real unknown find but almost immediately glowing No Win reviews started showing up across my blogroll. Well, they deserve it. “After Your Legs” opens things up, setting the tone with a melodic but hard-hitting edge, as does “Vision.” “2 Real” sounds a bit like Fountains of Wayne meets Weezer to me while “Being Teen” and “Waiting for a Call” change up the pace, establishing a slower, more acoustic atmosphere. But “Shelly Duvall” is the obvious single to these ears, with its slightly dissonant hooks and smooth vocals. It’s a track that screams perfect movie montage music.

Screen Shot 2019-05-11 at 11.19.17 PMSupercrush might be described as a ‘change of life’ band. The members foreswore their hardcore roots in other groups to go full on power pop with this project and their first complete album release, Never Let You Drift Away. The record brings together a group of singles that have been on a slow drip release stretching back years, but the collection has proven to be worth the wait. There is nary a weak track here. And for an LP that came together in bits and pieces, the whole thing has a consistent sound and style, with “Melt Into You (Drift Away)” and “I Don’t Want to be Sad Anymore” ready to be added immediately to any Top 40 hit singles rotation. On the other hand “I Can’t Lie” and “Walking Backwards” have a great 1960s jangle aura. This is a crank-me-up at the beach good time.

Screen Shot 2019-05-11 at 11.20.23 PMDavid Brookings has the look of a classic 1970s poprock star with his David Cassidy-like impish grin and wavy mop of hair. Now he’s got the album to go with it. Scorpio Monologue is a timeless slice of 1960s-70s infused should be hits. Brookings writes songs that echo a time when radio was dominated by standout guitar hooks and sweet harmony vocals. It’s all there on the opening track, “And It Feels Like,” with its driving, chiming guitar lines and mid-period Blue Oyster Cult feel for melody and menace. Things lighten up a bit with the winsome, summery  jangle of “I Grow Up Fast” and turn on the late Beatles-era McCartney influences on “Rainbow Baby.” Brookings shows his mastery of styles whether dialing up the rock factor on “Big Gun” or adding a tasteful bit of yacht to “Be Gone (Whoever You Are).” “Silicon Valley” has a slight Billy Joel meets country flavor to me and nicely (but gently) skewers tech’s home town. And check out the great surf rock rumble guitar opener to “That Girl’s Not Right,” a song that shifts to a distinctive melody in the chorus, combining sunshine elements with a hint of malice. And then “Sleep to Dream” closes the album on surprisingly uneasy note, bittersweet ennui being a bit of a departure for Brookings songwriting-wise. Scorpio Monologue is an impressive development of the David Brookings and the Average Lookings sound. It should be on every poprock fan’s 2019 summer playlist!

2019 is already shaping up to be another great year for melodic rock and roll. Let’s increase the odds that other bands might follow suit by showing No Win, Supercrush, and David Brookings and the Average Lookings a bit of the money love! Click on the bandcamp links and start spending now.

Photo: Larry Gordon “Veil on Bloor Viaduct” April 2019

Twelve missing ‘hit singles’ from 2016

29 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bosco Rogers, Chris Staples, David Brookings and the Average Lookings, Public Access TV, Purses, Red Cabin, Steve Ison, The Kickstand Band, The Rifles, TUNS, Twins, Wesley Fuller

hit-singleIt’s end-of-the-year ‘best of’ list time and we here at Poprock Record wish to join the almost evangelical rush to judgment that accompanies such proceedings, though with a twist.   I mean, who am I to say whose records are the best?  If I put them up on the blog then you already know I think they are pretty great and worthy of Beatlesque adulation.  Still, I do feel like shining an extra light on a few songs that just screamed ‘hit single’ to my 1970s AM radio-trained ears.  So instead of a ‘top ten’ list I’ve assembled a list of twelve ‘missing’ hit singles, songs that would easily top the charts in my alternate poprock universe.

Pulling together my twelve apostles of poprock was not an easy task.  From the full list of songs featured on the blog in 2016 I singled out the ones actually released in this past calendar year – 59 songs in all!  Then reducing that number down to just twelve was painful as there were compelling arguments for keeping any and all of the other 47 as well.  But, in the end, cuts were made until just twelve remained.  They appear in no particular order and the hotlinks take you to the original posts as they appeared on the blog.  These are a dynamite twelve pack, sure proof that melodic rock and roll is far from dead, if somewhat remote from the more conventional charts.

Public Access TV, “On Location”

Red Cabin, “I Can’t Wait”

Twins, “Breaking Up”

TUNS, “Mind Over Matter”

David Brookings and the Average Lookings, “Time to Go”

Chris Staples, “Hepburn in the Summertime”

Steve Ison, “Boy”

Bosco Rogers, “Beach! Beach! Beach!”

Wesley Fuller, “Melvista”

The Rifles, “Wall Around Your Heart”

The Kickstand Band, “Summer Dream”

Purses, “Wheels on the Run”

Check out these bands in more detail on their various webpages.  You find all the links on the original posts.

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